I'm BACK!

Just wanted to let you know I'm back and missing you, dearest blog, so much.
I did a wonderful thing while in California for the wedding (besides seeing the family and friends). I went on a "cupcake tour" of L.A.
In true dork fashion, I googled a ton of bakeries, plotted them on a map complete with highlights, phone numbers, hours of operation... yeah I'm gonna save SOME face not go into other details of my preparation (it includes a change purse for parking meters and maybe some lamination)

I barely got back yesterday a.m., and sleep was more important to me than uploading my pictures from the trip and the cupcake extravaganza. I have one on my phone and I thought it would be good to give you a little tease:



This is one of the cupcakes I ate from Crumbs bakery in Beverly Hills. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup.

I promise this week I will post an entry about my trip and all the ideas that resulted, along with a boat load of pictures. The decadence of them will truly give you a toothache from just looking at them.

SIDE NOTES:
-I sent some cookies to my fav non-food blogger, Una. The Sassy Curmudgeon... You know her, I talk about her, she cracks me up. Guess what? She liked them! I got an email from her while I was in CA and it was my happy ending at work today. Seriously.

-I think I'm going to start a side project blog. One where I can get personal and pretty much just b*tch about whatever comes to mind. I don't want this blog to get too personal.

-I love toys. Went to Johnny Cupcakes shop on Melrose, snapped up everything in sight and then stopped at KidRobot down the street. I fell in love with Dunny's. I want them all. and hoodie zipper pulls?! how come I didn't know about these? wtf?! I'm re-thinking my choice of friends for never telling me about these wondrous bits of happiness. The anticipation of openining the wrapper to see which one I'd find and then it being the one I wanted! I die! I'm now the proud owner of some brass knuckles... I will post a pic too, just you wait and you will want one too.

I think that's all. Ok, me signing out (I need to come up w/ a sign off...)

Last minute awesomeness

This is what kept me up all night... I had a last minute request to do an engagement cake on Tuesday evening. I can't turn down a job at this point, ESPECIALLY when it's a type of cake design I haven't done before. Because I already had square cake baked AND because I had 2 nights to get it ready (Wednesday and Thursday) I said sure.

PLUS, the customer was a fan via Facebook (YIPPEE!) and a referral from my beautiful photographer Libby. There was no way I could turn this down.
She sent me an idea of what she was looking for, then I did some research of other ideas, sketched out an idea and she loved it. This is the sketch:



I had ideas in my head of HOW I was going to create the ring band and thankfully at Michael's I found everything I needed (sigh of relief) and I felt pretty prepared for Thursday night when I actually started to decorate. It took me about 3.5 hours from start to finish (not including re-whipping the frosting). This is what it looked like when it was all done:








I also had to make oatmeal raisin cookies for an order. I haven't made this type of cookie in years. I like it way too much- more than chocolate chip cookies (I know, blasphemy) and I could just eat the dough in a bowl and be happy. NO need to bake. I had intents to make the dough on Wednesday night when I was making the frosting and buttercream for the cake, but I didn't have enough oatmeal or raisins. Needless to say I was up all night until the a.m. today. I'm tired... But happy with how the cake turned out. I'm like a mother when I pass the cakes off for delivery. I hover and worry, but also get to the point where I'm like- ok the stress is NOW YOURS during transportation. I won't be there when she picks it up this afternoon, so I will be sitting here anxiety ridden until I hear she gets it home OK.

So, congrats Anna & Dan- hope you enjoy your cake

"The Best Ever" recipes

Tuesday a.m. I woke up and realized I didn't have anything pressing to bake. A cake MAYBE for Thursday night (but not a decorated one) and another small 'presentation' cake for Saturday night. I hadn't baked anything for the co-workers this week or had anything planned so it was as good a time as any to try out "The Best Chocolate Sheet Cake You Have EVER Had"... I thought I had all the ingredients in the house anyhow so I was set on it.

Alright- got the recipe from ye Ol' Pioneer Woman a while back and thus far her recipes have treated me well.. (except the Pound Cake FAIL from before.. see "Beautiful Disaster")
After work, after dinner but before outdoor play time I did THIS:

The Mise En Place (boiling water, melted butter w/ cocoa powder, 2 beaten eggs, 'buttermilk' (I didn't have any so I used half and half, shhhh), vanilla and baking soda):



butter melts w/ cocoa powder, mix.. add 1 cup of boiling water, boil for 30 seconds:



Pour hot mixture into bowl of flour, salt and sugar and mix... the hot chocolate steamed up my lense, SORRY! and I had to show off my new sticker on the Kitchen Aid. Like? I love...



At this point you want to mix the 'buttermilk' with the 2 eggs, vanilla and baking soda. once that is combined, pour it into the chocolate flour batter. Mix that up and then pour into whatever baking dish you choose. Cupcakes, sheet pan, Pyrex, Bundt- your choice here. I went w/ a Pyrex because I knew I was going to be frosting and taking into work and I just like it this way. Notice I buttered and floured the Pyrex. Do it, do it, DO IT. It makes it come out easy and then you can frost all sides. Just Do IT.



OK, I let it cool off and then turned it over onto my big rectangle platter. And then I made the frosting.. Which ALSO was called "The BEST Frosting You Have Ever Had". It's an odd little recipe. Uses regular sugar (NOT POWDERED) and Flour. Yeah.. Flour. The flour tripped me up a bit. Basically, because I'M an IMPATIENT Sweet Sandy B, the flour got lumpy in the half and half...um, yeah... Well the kiddies wanted to go out and play and so did I, so whatever.



I had to let the frosting come to room temp, so it cooled as did the cake while we played. When we came back in, I dumped the frosting on top, smoothed it out as best I could. There were definite lumps in the frosting. ugh... I scooped out what I could, the frosting did taste good, but... Best Ever?? Not sure. No close ups due to the clumping.

SO, bathtime, bed time and I went for a run. It was at this point that I realized my CrackBerry died. Not like battery dead, re-charge. Like dead, dunzo DONE and Done. damn. More on that later... read a random thought- I will wax nostalgic there.. Anyhow, on the run I was like- well I guess I could give the cake to Mr. Papers for his employees. They won't care. But I really want to taste the cake! What to do... and I had already told my assistant at work I was bringing chocolate cake.... Lightbulb! Crush up some Oreo's and dump them on top. Who doesn't love an Oreo?? And, the crunch will mask the lumps in the frosting. Evil Genius Plan hatched... SEE- running DOES help w/ creative ideas.




And there you have it! I didnt' taste the cake until this a.m. and it was good. Best Ever?? I'm not gonna go that far. I just can't... It isn't as rich and chocolatey as I like my chocolate cake. I want super moist, super dark chocolate. And frosting.. well..... I am no expert on frosting and I haven't ever been big on it. It's ok. The co-workers like it and someone said the frosting was light and fluffy. hm...

I'll have to try it again when I have more patience and don't clump up the flour. But I could taste the granules of sugar and it threw me off...
you decide- I can't say run out and bake it tonight- but if you get the urge, get the complete recipe on Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen site. or you can message me, I'll share ;)

Johnny Cupcakes

Johnny Cupcakes

This caused quite the commotion in my life yesterday.
I'm still tail wagging and purring about it this morning.

Click on the title and check out Johnny's video blog about his stop in Royal Oak at 323 East Gallery. or click this: www.johnnycupcakes.com/blog It's Day 23..

It's about 8 minutes, and while the first 6 minutes are great, the last 2 are dear to me. You can see my container of treats on his podium and then, the last minute.... The last minute is the best. My name sounds so lovely coming from his mouth. Just sayin'

Crazy Town (my life, not the band)

Can't think of where to begin as I have a lot to say/show after this weekend. Here's me jumping in- try to follow:

I want to first show you a tiny bit of what my kitchen looks like after I decorate a cake. This gives me anxiety just looking at it-



and that's not even showing what the other countertops look like or what the sink is filled with. heart palpitations..

So- I delivered the cookies, bread and U of M graduation cake on Friday. Forgot that my cake was also commemorating the fact that our President was going to be delivering the commencement speech at my Alma Mater. Kind of proud.
Well, I had an awesome day on Friday. Overall a great start to my weekend. Met up with some friends, caught up on some girl time- happy girl I was. I went to sleep that night and had a nightmare about that dumb cake though. This is what my life is about now- waking up in a cold sweat about someone hating my cakes.

Saturday- busy BUSY and loo-oooong.
Had another session with Libby set up and had to bake/decorate some things for her to use. This is where my Mom juggling skills come into play- took the kiddies to breakfast, played, baked, decorated, nap, get ready and be on time for Libby. Um, I wasn't on time. Poor thing had to wait while I finished getting dressed.
This is what I wore for our photo shoot-



Her idea was something along the lines of whimsical/bright colors/flowers.. This is the girliest dress I own so it seemed to fit the bill. Can't wait to see how the pictures come out... we drove ALL OVER town and ended up at a cemetery. To take some pictures with these:




Which were the cupcakes that I made for my friends birthday. He had a show that night and I was going to go deliver them, after the photo shoot... Down in the D. And also somehow go to a meet and greet for someone called Johnny Cupcakes :)

If I could clone myself I think I would. OK- Libby is quick and efficient (I however am not) and she made quick work out of me and the goodies. I changed into my David Seibei shirt that arrived just in the nick of time and high tailed it out of Dodge to get to the next part of my day.

SO... I could go on about Johnny. I would if any of you care to know- but it involves about 4-5 hours of standing in line, driving to the Magic Stick TWICE, handing out cookies, making small talk, running into old friends... yeah, nevermind. Too much to say. It was exhausting but great. Here I am w/ Johnny:



yes, he is holding up a container of my cookies. Which he claimed he loved. I believe him ;)

And here is what Just Baked made for his appearance:




By the time I got inside the gallery to get to the cupcakes I was starving. My stomach was eating itself. I inhaled the cupcake and can't even begin to comment on what it tasted like. It wasn't awful, and that's about all I can give you. I did get a menu from their store and sweet Jesus are they pricey. $2.95 PER cupcake. They have four locations so clearly most people don't think that's too much. For.One.CUPCAKE. Maybe they are flecked with gold?

Alright, so I get my shirts, I ate the cupcake, I got my poster signed and I limp out of there. Wearing 4 inch wedges for 5 hours of standing in the same spot (for the most part) did a number on my soles and my wonky knees. I hobbled to my car and got myself into some more shenanigans....

I'm exhausted just reflecting on the weekend. But, yesterday I got this lovely picture on my phone:


I wish more people sent me pictures of them w/ their cakes. Even though it's not a picture of my friend eating the cupcakes, I like that the candles are all lit up and I know that people who love him are all standing with him at that moment. And my cupcakes were a part of it. I LOVE that....

I need a day off from the weekend. But you know I'm at work. Working.

The goodness that is Creme Anglaise

I had another cake commissioned for today. It was in a design near and dear to my heart- a U of M graduation cake in the shape of the infamous Block M.

When asked about the cake flavor/frosting flavor I was given "white cake, plain frosting". hm... real adventurous here.

I also had an order for chocolate chip cookies, banana bread and had to prepare for another birthday cake for this weekend. I had to plan out my week and what I would do nightly so I wouldn't be up all night last night. Hey, at least I TRIED. I was still up 'til 1 a.m. this morning.

Anyhow, I whipped up the Swiss Buttercream on Wednesday night. I made a double batch so I had 12 egg yolks with no purpose. I asked my new friend Lisa (@thebutcherbaker- GO CHECK THIS HOT MAMA OUT NOW! she's the most recent addition to @brutalsnack... more on Lisa later. I <3 her) about what to do w/ all of these yolks. She gave me three ideas: ice cream, creme anglaise for buttercream or a really fatty omelet. hmmm... Well, I don't have an ice cream machine and don't know that I want to take the time to figure out how to make ice cream at this point... an egg yolk omelet? while it sounds delicious I don't think my heart will allow me to eat it... Creme Anglaise? What is this "Creme Anglaise"? Sounds fancy...

I started to google. It's this custard type cream/sauce that you can use in buttercream, for a different flavor profile. It uses 5-8 yolks, depending on the recipe. Yup, it's going down.

Let me preface this that I was scared to make this. It involves tempering eggs. As you know- I am deathly afraid of tempering eggs. I've scrambled PLENTY of eggs in my time due to my impatience. I had a boat load of yolks though and so what if I scrambled some, I could keep trying.

I set to work. The recipe I used was very explicit about the utensils you had to use to make this recipe (stainless steel bowls, wooden spoon, whisk, ice bath, sauce pan..) Not anything crazy, but I thought- if they made the effort to clearly say STAINLESS STEEL BOWL, I better get everything out and ready and be a good little chef and do my mise en place.

Here is some:



Here is my half and half coming to 'just under a boil'. I think just under a boil means it starts to steam and you see little bubble forming along the edges of the liquid. Basically, you want to scald the liquid.



While the half and half is heating up, whip the egg yolks and sugar:



OK- now comes the 'scary' portion. I had to really focus on this part so I didn't take any pictures. But this is what happened: The half and half got to the scalded point. I walked it over to the Kitchen-Aid and started to slooooooooowly pour down the side of the bowl into the egg and sugar mixture. By "slooooooowly" I mean really really slowly and only a little bit at a time.
It appeared I didn't scramble the eggs! shriek of joy! Then, I poured the mixture back into the sauce pan and went back to the stove top and put it on low heat:



Then, I stood there and stirred with a wooden spoon for about 25 minutes. Seriously- I was irritated. I had the banana bread in the oven w/ the timer on, so I could see exacly how long this was taking me. I was to be stirring until the mixture coated the back of the wooden spoon. It took a long time and in typical Sandy B. fashion I got antsy and turned the heat up.

DUMB, DUMB and dumb. Guess what happened? The eggs started to scramble. (duh). Know how I knew? Because I COULD SMELL THE SCRAMBLED EGGS. I quickly took the pan off the heat and ran to the fine mesh strainer sitting in the ice bath and dumped the mixture out and pushed through the strainer. Caught in the nick of time... here is what the ice bath set up looked like (my savior):


and, I forgot to take pictures from here on out because the banana bread was done, I had to re-whip the buttercream and start carving the cake. Well- let me tell you what happened. I put the ice bath and creme anglaise in the fridge for about an hour. It cooled off and then I added it to my Swiss Buttercream and whipped the two together.
Then, I tasted it, then I died and then I swore I would do this for all of my cake frostings from now on, just adding different extracts to add different flavors. HOT DAMN was it good. So good in fact that I even let Mr. Papers try it out. He isn't too good with the compliments in regards to my baking, so when he agreed it was "best ever", I knew it was good... (I would like to note that he isn't this picky in regards to 'regular' food- he has been known to eat things OUT OF THE GARBAGE CAN because it was 'still good'. gross)

Anyhow, make some Creme Anglaise, or find a cake/cuppie that uses Creme Anglaise. You won't be sorry and you won't ever want frosting any other way. Trust me.
So- here is what it was all for. My Block M graduation cake:



I'm pretty stingy with the pictures on this one mostly because I consider it a "fail". I should KNOW dude! Whenever I think a cake is going to be "easy" it ends up being way hard. It wasn't until I was rolling out the fondant for it that I was like, hm... It might be somewhat difficult to get into the crevices in the middle. hm... Yeah, BIG HMMMM on that one. Idiot. It isn't pretty, I'm not proud and it was a huge learning experience. I tried to do anything and everything to make it look presentable. This is what I came up with. I know it tastes really good because I carved so much out of the sheet cake and tasted it. But, it doesn't look that great.
I need a lesson on how to lay fondant on letters. Help, please... anyone?

Ever been dumped?

In light of my recent 'dumping' experience, I thought it would be fitting to come up with a treat that reflected all the wonderful and awful things about going through a break up. :)

I was playing around on Pioneer Woman's website- salivating and laughing per usual and came upon this recipe.

You know me, the easier and more bad for you, the more likely I am to try it out.
I present you with the "DUMP CAKE":

Here is what you need- one can of cherry pie filling, one can of crushed pineapples, one box cake mix (white or yellow, you choose) and 1.5 sticks of butter (a little over 1/2 a pound, muah hahahahahah)

First, get a Pyrex dish (standard 9x13 or two small square ones) and get a can opener.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
And now the easy stuff... seriously- this is so easy you MUST make it tonight.

Open the can of cherry pie filling:



Marvel at the beautiful-ness of this cherry color. Not a color found in the cherry's natural state. I said this was bad and wonderful like a breakup, right? Just think about the wonderful color now... And dump the cherries into the dish



Next open the pineapples and dump into the dish



Mix the two together and spread out on the bottom of the dish:



Then, open the cake mix, dump it out and spread evenly on top of the fruit mixture:



Here is what it looks like from the side... pretty



Slice up the butter into little pats and dump/spread evenly on top of the cake mix



Pop it in the oven for about 45 minutes - hour, and watch it bubble so nicely... Then when the top gets a nice golden brown and the fruit is bubbling up, pull it out
and inhale the wonderfulness that you just made out of those seemingly awful cans of fruit




Scoop some out onto a dish and enjoy!!! It is like a cross between a cobbler and a cake and oh so good.



TIPS: you can make this EVEN BETTER by scooping up some vanilla ice cream on top, making some fresh whipped cream...actually if you want to go MORE awful, use some Redi-Whip! It adds to the easiness of the recipe. OK, you know what, just use Redi Whip or Cool Whip. Don't make fresh whipped cream.
Let's just go all out with the processed food idea on this one. In fact, USE MARGERINE instead of butter. awesome....

see, breaking up doesn't have to be hard to do.

The Dump Cake... Make it TONIGHT and people will love you. And you can pretend like it took alllll day.

Blogger Note: I made this cake last night and popped it into the oven while I went to the gym for a run. I tasted it when I got home and consumed the calories I burned off. So is life... Plan was to bring it into work for the co-workers as they haven't had treats this week (aside from chocolate chip cookies). But I had to see Dr. Ryan in the a.m. and figured the cake wouldn't be that great when it was cold. So I told Mr. Papers to take it into work for his peeps after I reheated it this a.m. in the oven.. I'm smart and caring...and nice, and all that good stuff...

Karma is so sweet. Mr. Papers scooped himself a piece of the cake and took a bite and much to his dismay, he bit into a cherry with A PIT still inside. He broke his tooth.

Muahahahahahahahahahah!!!

Happy Birthday Landon!!!

For a little over a year, I was the only girl in my coterie of friends in the Midwest that had a baby. No friends to have play dates with, and definitely no baby birthday parties. But the past 2 years, it was baby palooza up in this mug...
This weekend, we had Landon's first birthday party. My great friend asked me to make the cake, and let me know the theme was to be sports related as he really really loves playing with all things round.
She decided on cupcakes and a smash cake so I got to work as the kids got to giddly think on this elusive thing called 'party' we were going to attend after naps.

Let me tell you something- my kids are shy. Like, run from the camera, hold onto my legs for dear life, can't be pried from my arms, wail when I leave their sight. I mean, they blush if you look at them.

....

Yeah, right.
My kids are the EXACT opposite of that. #1 hasn't met a stranger he DOESN'T like. He frequently tells new friends that he loves them within 5 minutes of being introduced. Moochie had a few months where she was a strict mama's girl, but man ALIVE did she come out of her shell lately and on Saturday, the girl came wearing her party pants and got down to business. She flirted and laughed, walked on tip toe and sashayed about in her party dress, cooing her favorite word to anyone who would listen. "shooooes" she would proudly proclaim, lifting her foot for them to bestow the inevitable "awwww, cute", to which she would reply "ank oooo". How could you not love this child. She's my favorite girl.

ok- the real deal reason for this post is this cake, here it is:




Since I was doing cuppies and not a stacked cake, I wanted to do something creative. I have quite a few inspiration books on cupcakes and I hoped there would be something sports related or something to get my creative juices flowing. In the book "Hello, Cupcake" there was a picture of a stacked cake of cupcakes. It didn't use a cupcake tower (thank GOD because I don't have one, yet) and it was colorful (another request from my friend) and I thought I could use my cupcake toppers too.

First, frosted the cuppies in either vanilla buttercream or chocolate buttercream, rolled the edges in sprinkles and then got to stacking.




I popped the cupcake toppers in all the outside cuppies and added a single swizzle candle on top.



And that's his smash cake. It was 3 layers of banana cake with chocolate buttercream. I was about to go all out on this cake, but I was like- no one is going to even be LOOKING at this cake they will be too focused on this cute baby eating it with his hands. So I went with simple and it was my FIRST time frosting a cake without using the Swiss Buttercream! I think it went well.
Don't know if Landon liked how it tasted, but he seemed to enjoy it. ;)

Spring Butterflies, and some Monkey-ing around.

I've been wanting to do a butterfly cake for a while now. I found a beautiful wedding cake that was 4 tiers and had butterflies cascading down the front of it, on the diagonal... Well, look at what I did- this is a weak attempt at the beauty that I was inspired by:









This was (obviously) a birthday cake... Again, didn't have much direction on what it was to look like... wait- I was told she liked "pretty things, like flowers"... SO at the last minute I decided to throw on two fondant flowers (can you spy them on top?) Mostly because I wanted to practice making them, and I would have done MORE, but the kids were getting antsy.

I should have made the butterflies a few days in advance to let them harden. Yeah, but I didn't start working on the cake until Wednesday late night. SO- I had to come up with a way to get them to dry out quicker. I baked them. I set them on skewers and put them in the oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. They did get hard, but I don't know if that's 'kosher'. I figured, you put clay into a hot kiln to dry the pots out... why not fondant?? It was either that or freezing it, but I didn't have room in the freezer.

I broke a few while putting them on the cake but I got really excited to make a real deal butterfly cake at another time. To shape their wings in various stages of flight, to make a rainbow of them... Doesn't that sound pretty???? Just agree with me, make me feel better.

OK- and Monkey bread...mm. mm... MMMMMM!
In following with my addiction to making food that is nothing but BAD for you, I had to make some Monkey Bread.

I thought this was something new and different- I mean, I had never heard of it before ir seen it before really... I thought people would be like, "how do we eat this? slice it?" and I would wink and say "NO, you pull it apart, one little nugget at a time, see?" and I would pull apart a little nugget and the caramelized sugar would ooze over the little piece I pulled off, and pop it in my mouth with a smile.
Not so much. It didn't happen like that.. What really happened was that my co-workers were like, "OH YEAH, Monkey Bread is awesome, I've had it here and here and my neighbor makes it all the time, and did you know you could add this..." and on, and on, and ON.
so much for being original.

It was still fun, easy, used lots of butter and tasted delightful. Check me out:

here is the POUND of butter melting with the cup of brown sugar (I love saying a pound of butter- it sounds worse than 2 sticks of butter. Sucka's!)



Here is the refrigerated biscuits I used. You can use 3 or 4 cans (each have 10 biscuits) and cut them into 4ths.


Then you dump them into a giant ziploc bag of sugar and cinnamon



and shake like mad. If you have kiddies- give the zipped up bag to your kids and play catch or something. The more shaking the better. Get every little nugget completely coated in sugar goodness



THEN you dump it into a BUNDT PAN! Yeah, another use for the bundt pan!!! This is better than just a cake pan because it offers more edges for caramelized sugar and little bits of crunch



Then, you take that melted POUND of butter and brown sugar and POUR over the top of the nuggets...



Yes, you will be eating this shortly...



Throw into a 400 degree oven for about 35 minutes until the top is a nice golden brown and no longer swimming in the POUND of butter.
Let it cool in the pan for another 15 minutes or so, then turn upside down onto a serving platter:




This is the Bundt Pan after I dumped. I didn't grease or flour this pan (shocking, I know) but because it had so much butter, it pretty much just slid out of the pan, easy peasy.



TRUTH: I baked this the night before I brought it into work. It was still pretty good in the a.m. and I imagine it would have been BEST if it was still warm and melty. I went ahead and made it again this a.m. for the co-workers. I love walking into work with goodies fresh out of the oven, the smell of cinnamon wafting behind me. They like it too- it's like the Pied Piper or something. This time I added some cut up pears though- I wanted to add diced apples, but I couldn't find any in the can. SO I went with pears. Eh, what's the diff... I was going to chop up some pecans for the top, but got lazy. Next time!!!